


Pearls

by hilaryfaye



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2015-12-05
Packaged: 2018-05-04 23:59:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5353205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hilaryfaye/pseuds/hilaryfaye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Your dedication to the navy is admirable, if unfortunate.” She ran the button between her fingers and slipped it into her pocket. “A little something to remember you by,” she said, winking. “Maybe I’ll bring you a replacement someday.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pearls

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skytramp](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skytramp/gifts).



> Happy Birthday Laura!

When the sun set, Riko could no longer see her ship in harbor. She had been watching it from her window in the boarding house, looking up from her half-finished letters to grimace at the damage, calculating over and over again the cost of repairs, the days they would be stuck in this nowhere port, the coldness with which she would be greeted when she returned to her superiors and these letters had already reached them.

She had already defied orders. She had been called home, and she had pretended not to have received the order when they had sighted the ship on the horizon. It was not mere obedience that had made her a captain at twenty five.

Aida Riko was among the best in the royal navy. They spoke of her determination when chasing down pirates, the criminals she had brought back for trial, the routes she had protected.

She was among the best.

She meant to become simply _the best._

It had taken her well over a day for their ship, the _Victory,_ to catch up to the _Rising Tyrant._ She knew the _Tyrant_ by reputation more than aught else. They were vicious in battle, most merchant ships simply surrendered when they saw the red and black banner. If Riko could capture them, she knew, she’d be an admiral before she was thirty.

Her crew had been hesitant, but they had confidence in their captain, and when the time came that the _Tyrant_ could no longer outrun them, they had prepared to open fire.

Riko had only half-expected the _Tyrant_ to turn back to meet them. If the _Tyrant_ possessed cannons, they did not use them—they pulled the ship broadside, so that it slammed against the _Victory,_ and they boarded.

That, Riko hadn’t expected. Boarding was a last resort, a mad dash to either desperate victory or death, and the pirates had no reason to be desperate, yet.

As it turned out, they had none at all. They had overwhelmed Riko’s crew, killed some of them but left most of them alive, and locked in the hold once it was cleared of anything they wanted. They took all the gunpowder and cannonballs, but left them with the cannons. They took the money meant for her crew’s shore leave, rifled through everyone’s sea chests for anything that might catch their eye.

Through it all, Riko was tied to the foremast, suffering the conversation of the captain and his first mate. They were unbearable, this Imayoshi and Momoi.

“That was impressive,” Imayoshi said, smirking at her like an especially irritating school boy. “Chasing us down so relentlessly. Not many are that bold, Captain Aida.”

“You could come with us,” Momoi said, inspecting the buttons on Riko’s coat, which Riko was still wearing. “Your talents would be put to more profitable use.”

“Go to hell,” Riko said.

Momoi smiled, grasping a silver gilt button and tearing it from Riko’s coat. “Your dedication to the navy is admirable, if unfortunate.” She ran the button between her fingers and slipped it into her pocket. “A little something to remember you by,” she said, winking. “Maybe I’ll bring you a replacement someday.”

“Does me no good if you’re leaving me here to die,” Riko said.

“Ah, you’re far too interesting for that, Captain,” Momoi purred. “If we were going to kill you, I’d have done it myself.”

Imayoshi laughed softly. “She does love her worthy foes.”

“I know you’re already working at that knot,” Momoi said, pulling a stray hair from her face. “You’ll be out of it by nightfall, I’m sure, and then you’ll be able to free your crew. Of course, we won’t just leave your ship whole and ready to chase after us again. We’ve taken a few… precautionary measures.” She smiled. “You’ll have enough time to make it to the nearest port, I think, before this lovely ship sinks to the bottom of the ocean.”

Riko bared her teeth. “You—”

Momoi laid a silencing finger over Riko’s lips, and startled Riko’s voice into failing. “Before you curse my name,” Momoi said, smiling sweetly, “just remember that I could have cut your pretty little throat.” She giggled, and brought her hand away. “Well, Shou-chan, I think it’s time for us to go.”

They took their spoils, and left Riko to struggle against the ropes until her hands blistered and ached, damning herself, damning the pirates as she watched their ship disappear. As Momoi had predicted, she was free near sunset. She released her crew, taking an account of who remained alive.

The sides of the _Victory_ were nearly destroyed, and the sails cut, holding together only enough that they would be able to limp to the island port they had recently stopped at for provisions. They busied themselves that night with funerals for those who had been killed, and in the morning, they turned their ship about.

The journey had taken them three days, and it was another four that Riko had been sat in that boarding house, deciding what to write to her superiors, and what discipline she would be rewarded with when she returned to a royal port. It was a defeat that stung worse than when she had lost an officer to pirates a handful of years earlier. (Not that they had killed him—they had kidnapped her first mate, Kiyoshi, and he had never come back.)

This place they were in existed outside of royal law. It was little more than a shanty town sprung up on an island that possessed both freshwater and decent farm land, a place that thrived more than anything on the ships that came there out of necessity, too far from any other port. Ships like the _Victory._

Riko crumpled the letter she had been working on in her hand, throwing it to the floor in frustration. She had yet to find a way to report the incident that didn’t in some way convey her wounded pride, and yet to not report it at all until she returned would convey the humiliation she felt more clearly than any report. She had shaped her career on the hunting of pirates. Her superiors would tell her that she had aimed too high, become too sure of her own abilities. They would recommend she rejoin the fleet.

And that Riko could not abide.

There was a gentle knock on her door, that of the quiet maid who haunted the boarding house. Riko had learned in her brief stay that the maid moved with an eerie silence, so that one hardly ever heard her footsteps before she tapped on the door.

“Captain Aida,” the maid said, “you have a visitor.”

Riko could think of no one who would visit her on this island. Her crew would have sent a messenger via the first mate, and the majority of residents in the boarding house had seemed to be merchant captains, none of whom she was acquainted with. She pushed back from the desk, reaching for her coat. Missing button or no, she wouldn’t greet anyone out of uniform.

“Come in.”

The woman at the door wore a tight bodice, supporting her ample bosom, on which rested several strings of gleaming pearls. The dress itself was a soft cream color, sewn to flatter the form without being unseemly, and the woman wore her hair curled and held aloft by a jeweled hair pin. All this would have been enough to strike Riko speechless—had she not recognized the woman, and drawn her sword. “You.”

Momoi closed the door on the startled maid, and smiled at Riko. “That’s a very rude way to receive a guest, Captain.”

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“Perhaps I’ll tell you, if you put your sword down. I’m unarmed.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Momoi smiled. “I could prove it to you.” She began to loosen the laces of her bodice.

Riko narrowed her eyes, though a moment later they were round as saucers, when Momoi pulled her dress up over her head, and dropped it to the floor. She stood before Riko in nothing but her pearls and stockings. “See? No weapons.”

Riko lowered her sword, her mouth dry. “What do you want?”

“I should think that would be perfectly obvious, Captain.” Momoi sat in one of the chairs, crossing her legs and bobbing her toe. “I came for the pleasure of your company.”

Riko stared at her, trying to still the whirling of her mind. “What makes you think you’ll get it?”

Momoi smiled. “You’re not as opaque as you think you are, Captain.” She sat forward, the strings of pearls clicking together over her breasts. Riko’s face flamed scarlet, and she looked away.

“I ought to arrest you right here.”

“You have no legal authority in this port.” Momoi played with the pearls. “And I have more friends in this house than you.” She slipped one shoe from her foot, then the other. “So while we are in this lawless town, Captain, perhaps you can forget on which side of the law we each stand.”

“Why?” Riko half-consciously touched the missing button on her coat.

Momoi pulled the jeweled pin from her hair, long locks falling down her back. “One gets used to seeing the same faces on a ship every day. I admit, Captain, I’m disappointed that you declined to join us. Of course,” she stood, coming to where Riko stood against the desk. “You may yet change your mind.” She put her hands on Riko’s coat as if to begin unclasping the buttons.

Riko grasped either side of Momoi’s face, kissing her with her heart roaring in her ears. The soft scent of perfume and the warmth of Momoi’s skin made her almost drunk. She had been too many months at sea with nothing but sailors and the sea wind—and even she wasn’t immune to the charms of a beautiful woman in a place where law meant nothing.

Even if that woman had had the opportunity and motive to slice her throat open when first they’d met.

Momoi pressed against the front of Riko’s coat, running her hands down the line of buttons. She began at the top, at the button she’d ripped off, and worked her way down, pushing the coat off her shoulders. She reached for the hem of Riko’s shirt, pulling it over her head, and Riko unclasped the slim undershirt over her breasts.

Riko pulled Momoi to her, kissing along her throat and chest, her hands clasped together under Momoi’s ass, so that Momoi was almost straddling her lap as Riko leaned her weight against the desk. The pearls had grown warm against Momoi’s skin, and they brushed Riko’s cheek as she kissed and caressed, eliciting a sigh from Momoi as she ran her tongue around a nipple, and a surprised sound at the graze of her teeth. Momoi giggled a little, running her fingers through Riko’s hair. “My, Captain,” she murmured, “I thought perhaps you had been without the comforts of home for a while, but this need is something I hadn’t anticipated.”

Riko sucked in the scent of her perfume. “I get tired of sailors.”

Momoi’s hands followed the line of Riko’s belt. “As do I.” She grasped the belt and pulled Riko to the bed, smiling.

“What would your own captain think of this visit?” Riko asked. “As a matter of fact, where is your good captain?”

“Mm, with his latest playmate,” Momoi replied, tracing the line of a scar on Riko’s stomach. “He knew I was coming.” She leaned over to run her tongue over the scar, drawing a shiver out of Riko.

“So your ship is at port with mine.” Riko frowned.

“So it is. But we will be here only a few days, to resupply and sell some of our wares—and you will be here another few weeks, I think.” She slid her hands up Riko’s bare torso, kissing her way up. “Stop thinking about your ship, Captain, the navy will have you again soon enough.”

Riko ran her hands over Momoi’s hair, long and obviously well cared for, without the usual texture hair took on with long exposure to salty air. God, how long had it been since she met a woman this beautiful, who wasn’t bound to land in one way or another?

Riko pushed Momoi back on the bed, kissing her throat. “Maybe right now,” she murmured, “there’s no law or king or navy, but I will capture you, someday, and bring you to trial.”

Momoi smiled, her fingertips feathering over Riko’s breasts. “Someday, Captain, I will make a pirate out of you.”

“No,” Riko said, pulling back to loosen her belt, to pull off her boots. “Because you see, I’m going to be an admiral.”

“An admiral,” Momoi said, her eyebrows rising. “My, I knew you were ambitious.” She brushed her hair out of her eyes as Riko shed her trousers and climbed into bed beside her. Momoi slid a hand down Riko’s side. “I’d like to be known as the reason an _admiral_ became a pirate.” She grinned.

Riko moved down the bed, kissing Momoi’s legs where her stockings ended, just above the knee. Momoi sighed and moved her legs apart, letting Riko settle between them, attentive to every little change in Momoi’s breath as she kissed the inside of her thighs. She was not the only captain, she knew, who had illicit affairs in ports like this, and she had been too long among a crew of mostly men.

Riko pressed a kiss under Momoi’s navel, and glanced up at her. “Putting you in jail is what’s going to _make_ me an admiral.”

“Mm; I could never forgive you for that, Captain.” Momoi shifted, sucked in a breath as Riko moved her kisses lower, mouth pressed against her. Riko squeezed her hips, and Momoi’s fingers settled in her hair. “If you ever came close to succeeding in capturing me, I might have to cut your throat after all.”

Riko’s tongue swept up and Momoi’s breath caught in her throat. Riko pulled away, pressing a kiss to the inside of her thigh. “You’ll come to like the rest of me too much for that.” She drew her fingers softly over Momoi’s skin, taunting her. “I could make a navy woman out of you.”

Momoi’s face was flushed, betraying her arousal. “So you could order me around? I’d rather hang, Captain.”

Riko slid up the length of her body, kissing her stomach and breasts and throat, sliding her hand between Momoi’s legs. The pearls rubbed between them, clicking together. Momoi sighed against Riko’s mouth, squeezing her breasts. They moved together like waves against the side of a ship, as much opposed as they were driven together.

Riko rolled onto her back, letting Momoi straddle her head, her thighs pressed against Riko’s ears so that the only thing she could hear was Momoi, the thrum of her pulse and the moans in her throat. Momoi came with a sigh, grasping at her own breasts, and waited a moment in the languid motions of Riko’s tongue.

When she pulled away, she pulled a strand of pearls from her neck and wrapped them loosely around her fingers. She ran the pearled hand over Riko’s stomach, smiling as Riko realized what she meant to do. Down the insides of her thighs, and pressed up against her, the pearls made Riko gasp. Momoi leaned in to nuzzle her throat, pressed over Riko so that when she squirmed she rubbed against Momoi. She lost all sense of where she ended and Momoi began, drowning in the heat of that bed, Momoi’s hair sticking to her cheek. She ached and waves broke against the shore.

Riko came swearing, gasping obscenities into Momoi’s hair. She caught her breath while Momoi strung the pearls around her neck, trailing them down her chest. Momoi smiled, tracing the underside of a breast as Riko sank into the pillow, her breath gradually slowing. Riko pulled her down for a kiss, drawing in another breath of her perfume.

Momoi’s fingers brushed over her stomach. “Perhaps you’ll think of me on those long nights at sea,” she murmured.

Riko brushed Momoi’s hair out of her face. “Next time,” she said, “I’ll capture your ship.”

Momoi laughed. “I’ll never let you.”

“So we’re to be rivals, then.”

“I suppose we are.” Momoi looked at the pearls around Riko’s throat a moment, and nodded. “Keep them. I like the way they look on you.”

Riko lifted the string, eyeing it skeptically. “Where did these come from?”

Momoi only laughed, climbing out of bed.

“Going so soon?”

“I have to be back to my ship.” Momoi shook out her dress, pulling it over her head. Riko laid in the bed, watching her dress and comb her hair out. She laced up the front of her dress, admired her reflection in the narrow mirror. She blew Riko a kiss as she left, the windows still dark and Riko’s candles burning down.

Riko sighed, rolling over in bed, the pearls heavy and warm around her throat.

She woke sometime shortly after dawn, when the morning light was still thin. She had thrown the pearls on the floor so they wouldn’t choke her. Stiff and hazy, Riko rose to wash her face, and found Momoi’s hair pin on the vanity.

It was useless to Riko, she’d not had hair that long in years. She pressed the jeweled end of the pin to her lips, and after a moment she went to retrieve the pearls, tucking both into her satchel. She would hide them in her sea chest when she returned to the _Victory._

She had a feeling this would not be the last time she saw Momoi Satsuki in lawless ports where the navy’s authority was limited. The _Tyrant_ was said to have an uncanny ability to track down anyone they wanted to find. There were always rumors that they had a witch on board. Riko suspected the truth was much more mundane: it was simply that Momoi and Imayoshi were very good at finding the grains of truth in rumor, and better at navigating the sea. She would have given both arms to have people like that under her command.

But she would never, until the day she died, have mercy on pirates.


End file.
